Newly disclosed emails obtained by the Associated Press show former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels sought to remove Howard Zinn’s work from state classrooms just weeks after the historian’s death in 2010. Zinn’s many books include the classic, "A People’s History of the United States," which sold more than a million copies and is still used in high schools and colleges across the country. In an email exchange...

The interest rate for federally subsidized student loans has doubled to 6.8 percent after Congress failed to reach a deal to avoid the hike. A proposal by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to lower student loan interest rates to 0.75 percent — the same rate given to big banks on government loans — also faltered before the deadline. Lawmakers will still have a chance to come to an agreement before the next school year, but...

With just days before the summer recess, the Supreme Court has handed down the first of four major decisions on issues of civil rights, discrimination and equality, ruling on a challenge to the use of race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions. The petitioner, Abigail Fisher, accused the University of Texas at Austin of discrimination for rejecting her college application, she says, because she is white. Many had expected the...

As the academic year winds down, a record number of Chicago schools are preparing to close their doors for good in the largest mass school closing ever in one U.S. city. Last week, the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 of the city’s public schools in a move that will impact some 30,000 students, around 90 percent of them African American. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pushed for the closures in order to save the city more...

After months of protest, teachers, students and parents in Seattle, Washington, have won their campaign to reject standardized tests in reading and math. In January, teachers at Garfield High School began a boycott of the test, saying it was wasteful and being used unfairly to assess their performance. The boycott spread to other schools, with hundreds of teachers, students and parents participating. Last week, the school district backed down,...

Students and administrators at New York City’s Cooper Union are clashing over the future of one of the last private universities in the United States to offer free tuition. Activists are occupying the president’s office for a ninth day after the school said fiscal problems would force an end to more than a century of free tuition for undergraduates. We host a debate with three guests: Mark Epstein, the chairman of the board of...

The National Rifle Association has unveiled the recommendations of its "School Shield" task force, calling for armed guards at every school in the country. We get reaction from Judith Browne Dianis, a civil rights litigator, racial justice advocate and co-director of the Advancement Project. Browne Dianis helped author the new report, "A Real Fix: The Gun-Free Way to School Safety," part of a week-long series of actions led...

Students and alumni at Yale University are organizing against a proposed campus center to train special operations forces in interview techniques. The center would be funded by a $1.8 million grant from the Pentagon and could open as early as April. Dubbed an "interrogation center" by critics, the facility would be housed at the Yale School of Medicine and led by Charles Morgan, a professor of psychiatry who previously conducted...

Earlier this month, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, voted unanimously to stop administering a widely used standardized test, calling them wasteful and unfairly used to grade their performance. They are now facing threats of 10-day suspension without pay if they continue their boycott. We go to Seattle to speak with two guests: Jesse Hagopian, a high school history teacher and union representative at Garfield High...

As the National Rifle Association pushes for armed guards in every school, we host a debate over what type of security measures should be taken in schools to prevent future tragedies. On Monday, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools proposed forming the school system’s own police force. We’re joined by Sean Burke, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council; and Damon Hewitt, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and...

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